Updated: 10/02/2026 por Jennifer Delgado | Published: 22/07/2014
While psychologists strive to understand what is the role and meaning of dreams, others seem to have definitely solved the mystery: they are convinced that dreams contain essential truths. But… why people from such diverse cultures assumed these psychoanalytic theories belonging to Freud in relation to their dreams? Can a dream determine our decisions and our behaviors?
Scientists at Harvard University and Carnegie Mellon, surveyed a total of 1100 people in the United States, India and South Korea, with the aim to discover the interpretations they gave to their dreams and to analyze whether these concepts influenced their decisions.
Respondents believed that dreams reveal hidden truths about themselves and the world around them, and these are considered a form of insight. On the other side, respondents acknowledged that they did not take as seriously an official warning about the possible danger to board a plane as if they dreamed of a plane crash. In the last case, 100% of them wouldn’t take the airplane. Curiously they add that: dreaming of a plane crash produces the same anxiety than if it really happened. Anyway, people tend to consider dreams as a source of powerful information more than a conscious thought.
Dreams, a thermometer of relationships
Finally, the researchers wondered if all dreams were equally significant. The result? Respondents attributed greater importance to pleasant dreams when they involved people they cared about. However, unpleasant dreams involving people they disliked took on greater significance. As one might imagine, based on these dream experiences, relationships with the people in question change substantially, becoming closer or more distant.
This is because dreams actually act as an emotional reflection of our relationships and social perceptions. When we dream about people we value in positive scenarios, our brain unconsciously reinforces those emotional bonds, interpreting those dreams as confirmation of closeness or affection.
In contrast, unpleasant dreams about people we don’t particularly care for trigger emotional alert mechanisms. The discomfort or conflict experienced in the dream is amplified, generating a perception of greater risk or distance in the real-life relationship.
Looking for meaning where there is none
And what about unrealistic or bizarre dreams? Surprisingly, people also attribute meaning to them. Even though they know these dreams will never literally come true, the urge to interpret them leads them to seek meaning where none exists, connecting dream images, emotions, and situations with their waking lives. In other words, beyond the dream’s content, what truly matters is how our beliefs, desires, and worries shape its interpretation.
This functions as a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy: by assuming that a situation is relevant, we act in accordance with that belief, which will eventually be reflected in our daily lives. This phenomenon reflects the well-known Thomas Theorem, which states: “If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.”
A final word to offer reassurance: dreams usually reflect our fears, worries, and waking beliefs; they almost never represent warnings of the future. They are not prophecies or secret instructions, but rather a mirror of our conscious and unconscious mind at work while we sleep.
In fact, studies conducted during the pandemic have shown that nightmares are more frequent during periods of stress, anxiety, or intense emotional change, suggesting that dreams function as a kind of emotional thermometer, recording and processing our daily experiences and tensions. This perspective helps us to put their content into perspective and not attribute to them an exaggerated predictive power.
Therefore, the next time we try to decipher the meaning of a dream or are swept away by the supposed message of those dream images, it’s worth remembering that what we dream says more about ourselves than about the outside world. Interpreting dreams can be useful as a tool for self-knowledge, but with prudence and a critical eye: it offers us clues about how we think, feel, and relate to our emotions, without needing to take every dream image as an omen. In this way, we can approach our dreams with curiosity and respect, without letting anxiety or superstition dictate our decisions.
References:
Remedios, A. et. Al. (2023) Nightmare frequency and nightmare distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. J Clin Sleep Med; 19(1): 163-169.
Morewedge, C. K. & Norton, M. I. (2009) When Dreaming Is Believing: The (Motivated) Interpretation of Dreams. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(2): 249-264.
